America's farms could be making you and your family sick. Doctors are seeing a growing number of patients who are sick with infections that antibiotics can't cure, because the bacteria have become resistant to drugs. Studies suggest that some of the causes of the problem are on your dinner plate. The nation's chickens and pigs and cattle take antibiotics far more than you do, and public health officials say that is contributing to a crisis.

Evidence suggests that drugs used on American farms are causing a dangerous chain reaction:

Farmers give their animals some of the same important antibiotics that doctors prescribe for humans

Bacteria in the animals' intestines become resistant to those drugs.

People get infected with those resistant bacteria when they eat the meat.

Some people are getting sick and almost dying because powerful antibiotics don't work anymore.